Beyond Return to Work: The Effect of Multimorbidity on Work Functioning Trajectories After Sick Leave due to Common Mental Disorders.
Monica Ubalde-Lopez, I Arends, J Almansa and 3 others
PMID 27250634WHAT IT FOUND
Multimorbidity did not predict overall work functioning trajectory after return to work for common mental disorders.
Only 12% improved, and in that group each extra multimorbidity point lowered scores by 1.4 points on the 0 to 100 scale.
Key findings
01Baseline multimorbidity did not significantly predict membership in a work functioning trajectory after return to work (p = 0.24).
02Only 12% of workers had increasing work functioning over 12 months, while the other three trajectories were stable.
03In the increasing trajectory, each unit higher baseline multimorbidity score was associated with a 1.4 point lower work functioning score over time (p < 0.001) on a 0 to 100 scale.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The sample was small, and statistical significance was not the primary aim. 33% of participants were lost to follow-up, which could bias the trajectory groups. Chronic conditions were self-reported, so multimorbidity status may be inaccurate. The follow-up period may have been too short to fully capture effects of multimorbidity over time. Responsiveness of the Dutch Work Role Functioning Questionnaire was not assessed, so changes over time may not have been fully captured. Workplace factors such as organizational factors were not available and could confound or modify the observed associations.
Declared interests
The study was funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that multimorbidity caused poor work functioning for all workers who returned to work. Multimorbidity did not significantly predict overall trajectory membership (p = 0.24), and the 1.4 point effect was only within the trajectory whose scores were already increasing.